The Minimum Size For Your Roving And Nesting Areas !!!

Not many Sifus will tell you exactly what is the ideal size for both the roving and nesting rooms.

Then again if he tells you that the room should be, let say 5 meters by 5 meters, will he tells you why? I doubt that he will tell you anything for he thinks that it is not important for you to know.

What about if you should ask him why? Well he might tell you that that is the best and do not ask too many questions. He then will quipt that he know what he is doing.....

So for those who are not knowledgable enought will accept whatever his Sifu says and hope one day some one will tell him why .....

What happen if you know that the minimum must be 5 meter by 5 meter and he designed it at 3.5 meters by 3.5 meters?

Well I would say that you can kiss your birdhouse goodbye because your house will be absolutely be with no/little birds for the next five years....

This is why I think you must have enought basic knowledge before appointing any consultant to design or convert your shouphouse into a birdnest house.

What is the ideal dimension? What about the ideal height? Is the temperature of the surrounding important?

For a double or triple stories high birdhouse, do you need to increase the top room's height? If so why?

The answer lies on the your swiftlet's flying behaviour. If you should have the patience to carefully study their flying pattern you will realised that if you want them to enter your nesting room, the enterance must be clinically designed. The roving room size must be big enought to allow your swiftlet to make a circular flight pattern that are without any blockages and with a precise hole location to make it move to the nesting room.

The most ideal in accommodating this circular movement is a 4 meters by 4 meters roving room (4X4 = 16 Square Meters = 172.22 square foot). You must avoid having any posts or any other obstructions items inside this room. Not to forget is the right brightness.

As for your nesting room, a similar dimension is required. Use 4 meters by four meters minimum. If you wanted to make it bigger, try to make them a multiple of 4X4 meters (172.22 Square Foot). Try to ensure that there are no poles or obstruction which will hinder the birds flying path in these rooms.

What about the ceiling height? Ceiling height is dependent on the temperature of the area that you build the birdhouse. In Peninsular Malaysia, the temperature is on the higher side i.e above 27* Centigrade. For this kind of temperature the minimum height recommended is 3 meters (9.842 feet) and maximum is 4.5 meter (14.763 feet)high. (Remember your birds do not like a ceiling height lower then 3 meters (9.842 feet) high. They feel unconfortable to make their nest too low).

Something that I received today:

Hi Harry,

I want to add 1 more point which is the ideal ceiling height at least 9 feet because before swiftlet fly, they need to " drop off" from nesting plank. The distance need to "drop of is about 7 feet, so if your nesting plank is too low, swiftlet will face difficuty to fly.

All of us know that for a double or triple stories high birdhouse,the lower floors are always cooler then the higher floors. In controlling the high temperatures, it is recommended that the highest floor be designed a bit higher by at least 0.5 meters as compared to the lowest and the 1st floor.

I just hope the above informations are of use to all newbies .....